THOMAS: Cllr. Walcott lobbies for Calgary's own 'Ministry of Truth'

Perhaps the only thing George Orwell got wrong is the year. In his novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four (1984) written in 1949, he writes about a totalitarian society where lies are the truth and information is withheld or manipulated to control the society by the Ministry of Truth. Outgoing City of Calgary Councillor Courtney Walcott introduced a notice of motion in committee last week to take a deep dive into misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (MDM) and the impact they may be having on city hall and on Calgarians. In his motion, Walcott includes definitions of MDM:Misinformation is false information not intended to cause harm; Disinformation is the creation and distribution of false information designed to manipulate, damage, or mislead intended targets; Malinformation is information originating from the truth, but it is often over-exaggerated in a way that misleads and causes potential harm. “With the growing threat and impact of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation on democracy at the local, provincial, national and international level, the need to protect well-informed democratic decision making at the local level is paramount to ensuring the City of Calgary is a leading municipality protecting itself from the growing threat misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation have on our local democracy and decision making processes,” reads Walcott’s motion. .The motion calls for the city to hire a third-party consultant to review how the city handles MDM, including public education, internal procedures and the influence of artificial intelligence. Not completely dissimilar to Orwell's Ministry of Truth then, which engaged in continual propaganda to persecute individuality and independent thinking. Walcott’s new bureaucracy would review how false or misleading information impacts public trust, city finances, how the city is run and look at how the city responds to improve media literacy and whether AI is helping or hurting efforts to identify misinformation. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion on something, and everyone has their own different value structures that have helped determine whether or not they think something is good or bad,” says Walcott. “That is completely fair. It's a question of are we dealing with the same information.” Walcott suggests an analysis of recent issues in retrospect, as examples that support strategy development, that identify the use of MDM by elected officials, administration, members of the public and other groups. That is tantamount to questioning the integrity of city councillors and of Calgarians in issues such as blanket up-zoning, the proposed Glenmore Landing redevelopment, the Viscount Bennett High School site redevelopment and the West Elbow local area plan (WELAP.) .Obviously, the majority of Calgarians have busy lives and concerns to attend to, but when thousands of Calgarians attended public hearings in council, in person, on the phone and in written submissions, councillors suddenly took note, especially Walcott apparently. This motion reeks of an effort to control information dissemination to Calgarians, including withholding information if convenient and taking a page or two from 1984. To that end, council, rather than withholding the information, should have been clearer to Calgarians that, at the root of the development decisions, under the guise of adding to housing supply, was a $228.5 million cheque from the federal Liberal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF.) Some of the money is being spent on affordable housing, as it should be. But, HAF also dictates how the housing stock in the city grows, awarding bonuses based on how many multi-family home construction permits it issues. Each of blanket up-zoning and the Viscount Bennett and WELAP redevelopments includes only multi-family homes, from duplexes and townhomes to high-rise apartments. There is no bonus money for single-family homes, information that was not forthcoming during council’s public hearing deliberations. .Calgary Cllr. Dan McLean is not in favour of Walcott's motion.“The city already spends a ton of money on communications,” says McLean. “I don’t think we need to spend any more money on it. And, who gets to decide what is misinformation and disinformation? “I think people were upset with the Glenmore Landing proposal or blanket rezoning, and they didn’t like some of the information that was out there. But it’s up to the people to decide, not for government to decide.” Not according to Walcott’s motion, which encourages a third party, paid by the city, to make the decisions on who is or is not spreading MDM. What could possibly go wrong with that set up? Calgarians have every right to vote in favour or against council's decisions at public hearings without the fear of reprisals from some integrity official, paid by the city with their tax dollars. Maybe the city should focus on the malinformation it employs.A majority of councillors voted in favour of the motion in committee, with Cllrs. Sonya Sharp, Andre Chabot and McLean voting against. The motion now goes to the city council meeting on May 27 for debate. For the information of Calgarians, it should be voted down.

THOMAS: Cllr. Walcott lobbies for Calgary's own 'Ministry of Truth'

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